Olsen
Scandinavian name meaning "son of Olav", derived from an Old Norse name.
Name Census estimates that about 427 living Americans carry the first name Olsen. It is a predominantly male name (98.8% of registrations). The average person named Olsen today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Olsen births was 2024 (64 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Olsen. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Olsen with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
427
~ 1 in 802,703 Americans
Peak year
2024
64 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,245
Tracked since 1989
Census
Olsen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 371 people with the first name Olsen, which placed it at #25,534 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#25,534
National first-name rank
People counted
371
371 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
56.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Olsen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Olsen is White at 56.1%. The next largest groups are Black (15.1%) and Hispanic (13.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Olsen described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Olsen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White56.1% · 208
- Black or African American15.1% · 56
- Hispanic or Latino13.5% · 50
- American Indian and Alaska Native7.3% · 27
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.1% · 19
- Two or more races3.0% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Olsen
Olsen leans heavily male at 98.8% of total registrations, but 5 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Olsen as a male name
- Ranked #2,245 in 2024
- 64 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (64 births)
Olsen as a female name
- Ranked #16,900 in 2020
- 5 female births in 2020
- Peak: 2020 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Olsen leans strongly male. 341 people counted with this name were male (93.4%), compared with 24 female bearers (6.6%).
Popularity
Olsen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Olsen from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 211 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Olsen by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Olsen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Olsens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Olsen, while Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Olsen
The name Olsen has its origins in the Old Norse language, which was spoken by the Germanic peoples who inhabited Scandinavia and parts of northern Europe during the Viking Age (8th to 11th centuries). It is derived from the Old Norse word "Óláfr," which means "ancestor's descendant" or "heir to an inheritance."
Óláfr was a common name among the Norse people, and it was often associated with royalty and nobility. One of the most famous bearers of this name was Olaf II Haraldsson, also known as Saint Olaf, who was the King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. He played a significant role in introducing Christianity to Norway and is venerated as the patron saint of the country.
The name Olsen is a patronymic form of Óláfr, meaning "son of Olaf." In Old Norse culture, patronymic names were commonly used to indicate a person's lineage and ancestry. The "-sen" suffix is a contracted form of the Old Norse word "sonr," meaning "son."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Olsen can be found in the Icelandic Landnámabók (Book of Settlements), a medieval text that chronicles the settlement of Iceland by Norse settlers in the 9th and 10th centuries. Several individuals with the name Olsen or variations of it are mentioned in this text.
Throughout history, there have been many notable individuals who bore the name Olsen or its variations. One such person was Ole Olsen, a Norwegian-American vaudeville performer who, along with his partner Chic Johnson, formed the famous comedy duo Olsen and Johnson. Ole Olsen was born in 1892 and passed away in 1963.
Another notable figure was Ole Evinrude, a Norwegian-American inventor who is credited with developing the first outboard motor for boats. He was born in 1877 and died in 1934.
In the literary world, Tillie Olsen was an American writer and feminist who gained recognition for her short story collections, including "Tell Me a Riddle" and "Silences." She was born in 1912 and passed away in 2007.
In the realm of sports, Ole Einar Bjørndalen is a Norwegian biathlete who is considered one of the greatest winter athletes of all time. He has won a total of 13 Olympic medals, including 8 gold medals, and numerous World Championships. Bjørndalen was born in 1974 and retired from competitive biathlon in 2018.
Finally, Ole Gunnar Solskjær is a Norwegian former professional football player and currently the manager of Premier League club Manchester United. As a player, he spent most of his career at Manchester United, where he scored the winning goal in the 1999 UEFA Champions League final. Solskjær was born in 1973 and is still active in his managerial career.
People
Olsen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Olsen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Olsen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Olsen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 427 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Olsen going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 802,703 US residents.
Is Olsen a common name?
We classify Olsen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 430 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Olsen most popular?
The single biggest year for Olsen was 2024, when 64 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Olsen is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Olsen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 371 people with the name Olsen, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,534 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Olsen in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Olsen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Olsen leans strongly male. 341 people counted with this name were male (93.4%), compared with 24 female bearers (6.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Olsen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Olsen is White at 56.1%. The next largest groups are Black (15.1%) and Hispanic (13.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Olsen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Olsen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.1% (208 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Olsen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Olsen a male name?
Yes, 98.8% of people registered as Olsen in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Olsen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Olsen in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Olsen can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Olsen?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Olsen, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.